Leadership

Mark Nunberg began his practice in 1982 and has been teaching meditation since 1990. He co-founded Common Ground Meditation Center in Minneapolis in 1993 with Wynn Fricke and continues to serve as one of the center’s Co-Guiding Teachers. Mark has studied with both Asian and Western teachers and finds deep inspiration in the teachings of the Buddha. Mark practiced as a monk for five months in Burma and completed four three-month retreats at Insight Meditation Society Retreat Center, as well as many months of intensive retreat practice at The Forest Refuge. Mark continues to be a grateful student of Buddhist practice. Administratively, Mark oversees programming at the retreat center.

Shelly Graf has been practicing in the Insight Meditation tradition and has called Common Ground their spiritual home since 2003. They are a graduate of Insight Meditation Society’s four-year teacher training program and lead residential retreats at IMS and other retreat centers nationally. Shelly currently serves alongside Mark Nunberg as one of Common Ground's Co-Guiding Teachers. Shelly oversees programming at the city center.

Shelly has an interest in integrating the teachings of the Buddha as deeply as possible into the fabric of our lives and as such, they have a special interest in waking up to whiteness as part of this total and fully integrated path of awakening. Whatever Shelly’s role may be, they will always be a grateful student of Buddhist practice first.

Gabe Keller Flores has been part of the Common Ground community since 2008, when he was a high schooler falling in love with the Dharma. He currently serves as Operations Manager. He has practiced with Ajahn Sucitto, Gil Fronsdal, Rebecca Bradshaw, and many other wonderful teachers at Insight Meditation Society and Insight Retreat Center, and has spent over a year of his life, cumulatively, on silent retreat. As a practitioner and teacher, he’s interested in the integration of love and wisdom and the natural process of awakening taught by the Buddha.

As Operations Manager, Gabe oversees communications, registration, and the beautiful panoply of volunteers that host programs, ring meditation bells, fix broken things, arrange flowers, and make food for our retreats (among other things)! Email him at gabe@commongroundmeditation.org to talk about volunteering.

Nancy Boler is our bookkeeper! Email her at bookkeeper@commongroundmeditation.org to talk about donating and more!

She is also our main yoga teacher. She has been teaching since 1999. She draws from her background in Kripalu yoga, Iyengar yoga, and mindfulness meditation. Her class instruction focuses on physical alignment, breath awareness, yoga philosophy, and development of wholesome mind states. For additional yoga offerings visit https://boleryoga.com/

Madhuri Kasat Shors (she/her) has been a sincere student of the Dhamma since 2001, when upon returning to the US after the Peace Corps she began regular practice and retreats, initially in the Goenka style and later inspired by Dipa Ma. Common Ground has been her spiritual home since 2012 when she moved to Minneapolis and grew a love for this sangha rooted in freely giving and receiving. She feels deep appreciation for the lineage of teachers offering the Buddha’s path of non-harm, loving awareness, wisdom and compassionate action. Enjoyment of the support of study with practice at Common Ground led her to the teachings of Sayadaw U Tejaniya & Bhikku Analayo’s immersive courses. She is being mentored to teach the Dhamma with Mark Nunberg and Shelly Graf. For several years she lived and worked in Aotearoa New Zealand, partnering and learning deeply about indigenous Maori models of well-being. She is a daughter of immigrants from India, mother of two, community psychiatrist, student of yoga & guang ping Tai Chi and previously served on the board of MN Doctors for Health Equity. In March 2025 she was invited to join Common Ground’s Board of Directors and elected as Chair.

Phillip Cryan serves as Executive Vice President of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa, a union of more than 50,000 healthcare workers in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and consumer-directed in-home care. He has been a meditator for more than 25 years and an organizer, activist, educator, writer, and policy analyst in pursuit of social, racial, and economic justice for most of that time, having taken an interest in justice work as an expression of Dharma practice. He has practiced primarily in the Thai Forest Theravada tradition of Ajahn Chah and the Chan/Pure Land tradition of Venerable Master Hsuan Hua. He became an active member of the Common Ground community in 2013 and has served on the Board of Directors since 2020.

Rick Condon was first introduced to the Dharma on a meditation retreat in 2009 and began practicing meditation and studying the Dharma at Common Ground in 2015. Since then, he has participated in the Buddhist Studies program and regularly joins weekend and residential retreats.

Rick is a dedicated practitioner, and his practice continues to evolve. Currently, he is working with perceptions of emptiness, loving-kindness, and compassion in meditation and daily life. He feels deep gratitude for the programming and teachings that have been freely and generously offered by the center.

He served on the Finance Committee at Common Ground for the past two years and has recently joined the Board of Directors as the Treasurer. He also serves as a practice leader at Common Ground's retreat center.

In the community, Rick works as a small business owner and offers his time and support to several nonprofit organizations that aim to reduce the effects of global warming and help communities struggling to adapt to the challenging consequences of these effects.

Rick is married and a parent to four children and two cats. He plans to retire from his business this year to spend more time with his family, on his practice, and in support of the inspiring work that many nonprofits in his community are engaged in.

Omkar Sawardekar, MSW, LICSW, is a therapist, trainer, intercultural coach, and organizational consultant. Omkar first came across mindfulness practice about 20 years ago and keeps falling in love with the beauty of these teachings. Omkar feels at home on this path of awakening, truth, and community. He is committed to using his intercultural skills and leadership to make Common Ground an increasingly inclusive community, fostering a culture that supports shared insights and healing, benefiting both individuals and the broader community. Before joining the board, Omkar was a leader with Common Ground's teen programming, BIPOC community, masculinity group, and activist sanghas.

Kyoko grew up in Japan, listening to her mother tell stories about Kyoko’s late grandmother--a devoted Buddhist known for her kindness. The ancestral stories deeply impacted her and shaped her perspective. After moving to the United States, she earned her MSW and Ph.D., and dedicated nearly four decades to her work as a psychotherapist. A member of Common Ground since 1999, She completed a two-year teacher training program, two-year intensive course on Satipatthana, and the Heavenly Messengers program at Spirit Rock. She has served on the Common Ground Ethics Committee and on the Ethics and Reconciliation (EAR) Council since their inception. Kyoko retired in 2019, and continues to integrate the Buddha’s teaching into her daily life, being present to joys and sorrows especially in these times of profound changes, and responding with discernment and care.

Jean Choe, a past Board member, has served on the Common Ground Ethics Committee since 2007 and been an EAR Council member since 2009. She holds a PhD in Clinical/Community Psychology and has been a practicing clinician for over two decades.

Mariann Johnson, a past Board member, has served on the Common Ground Ethics Committee since 2004 and a member of the EAR Council since 2009. She has an extensive experience as a mediator and organizational consultant. She currently teaches mindfulness and wellbeing at the Bakken Center for Spirituality and Healing, University of Minnesota.

Steve has studied the Dharma and practiced Insight Meditation since 1975. He served for many years at the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts as Executive Director, Board member, and senior teacher of the annual three-month retreat. As a monk in Burma for five years, under the guidance of the late Sayadaw U Pandita, he undertook intensive, silent practice of Insight and lovingkindness meditations, and in Australia, he studied the Buddhist psychology (abhidhamma) with Sayadaw U Zagara. He continues his practice under the guidance of Sayadaw U Tejaniya at the Shwe Oo Min Meditation Center in Rangoon. Steve is a co-founding teacher of the Vipassana Metta Foundation’s dharma sanctuary on Maui. He has been leading meditation retreats internationally since 1990, presenting the core teachings of the Buddha; and offering a variety of Buddhist mindfulness practices, encouraging cultivation of insightful awareness, and liberating understanding in all life activities. He encourages spiritual development of an unshakeable sense of well-being. On Maui he plants trees for a Dharma sanctuary and directs the Burma Schools Project building schools and clinics in Burma and supporting monastics and nuns.

James has been a meditation teacher since 1978 and currently leads retreats, workshops, and classes in the U.S. and abroad. He is the creator and teacher of the Awakening Joy course (since 2003). He is a co-founding Teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA. He is the co-author of Awakening Joy, the book based on the course (with Shoshana Alexander). He is a Guiding Teacher for One Earth Sangha, a website devoted to expressing a Buddhist response to Climate Change. James lives in Berkeley, California with his wife, Jane and has two sons and three grandchildren.

Joseph has been leading Insight and lovingkindness meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. He is a co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where he is on the guiding teachers’ Founders Council. In 1989, together with several other teachers and students of Insight Meditation, he helped establish the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.

Joseph first became interested in Buddhism as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand in 1965. Since 1967 he has studied and practiced different forms of Buddhist meditation under eminent teachers from India, Burma and Tibet. He is the author of Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening; A Heart Full of Peace; One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism; Insight Meditation: The Practice of Freedom; The Experience of Insight; and co-author of Seeking the Heart of Wisdom and Insight Meditation: A Correspondence Course.

Kamala is one of the founders and teachers of the Vipassana Metta Foundation on Maui. She teaches retreats in the Theravada tradition at venues worldwide, including being a Guiding Teacher and member of the Board of Directors at the Insight Meditation Society at Barre, Massachusetts. Practicing since 1975, her teachers have been the late Anagarika Munindra of India and the late Sayadaw U Pandita of Burma, and Sayadaw U Tejaniya of Burma with whom she continues to practice. Kamala has a commitment to carrying and offering the purity of the teachings of the Buddha in a way that touches our common sense and compassion as human beings, and allows the natural inner growth of wisdom. She lives on Maui where she raised four children, and is now blessed with five grandchildren. Kamala practiced both Insight and loving kindness meditations intensively under the guidance and preceptorship of Sayadaw U Pandita, in the USA, Australia, and in Burma as a nun and a lay woman.